Healthy Dragons prove more than match for Eagles

By Jerry Holsworth - sports@nvdaily.com

BERRYVILLE -- It was billed as a battle for second place in the Bull Run District boys basketball race, but it was hardly a battle after the first quarter.

William Monroe outshot, outrebounded and outplayed Clarke County for the next three quarters to topple the Eagles, 60-48, on Friday night.

"Our players played very hard through the whole game, and particularly on defense," Dragons coach Mike Maynard said. "We were worried coming into the game about Ethan Emmart's ability to shoot from the perimeter, but I thought we handled him pretty well tonight. Jordan Gentry did a great job covering him."

William Monroe (13-6, 9-2 in district) gave notice in the first moments of the game that it was going to be difficult for Clarke County (12-7, 7-4) to move into a tie with them. Dragons guards Jordan Gentry and Austin Batten opened the contest with back-to-back 3-pointers to give their team a 6-0 lead with just over a minute gone in the opening period.

The Eagles slowly fought back and eventually were able to get within three of William Monroe before the end of the quarter. A 3-pointer by Ethan Emmart and four points each by Todd Benton and Davey Hardesty led the Clarke County comeback.

Another 3-pointer by Sean McDonald to open the second quarter tied the game, but after that the wheels began to come off for the Eagles.

The taller Dragons team made it difficult for Clarke County to get a shot off, and the Eagles were only able to get open for six field goal attempts during the period. Clarke County's defense was just as stingy, allowing only eight field goal attempts by William Monroe.

The big difference, and it proved to be true for the rest of the game, was that the Dragons were able to convert their limited opportunities into points and the Eagles weren't.

William Monroe's two successful field goals of the quarter were 3-pointers, and, more importantly, they hit 5 of 6 free-throw attempts.

"Our center was out the last time we played them with a broken foot, but he's back now," Maynard said. "We're back to being healthy, and with the district race winding down, it's a perfect time to have that happen. When we play together as a team and we have everyone healthy, we're a really good team."

Clarke County, however, scored only five points from the field, and shot just 3 of 5 from the line. That resulted in a 28-22 Dragons lead at halftime.

Things got much worse for the Eagles in the third quarter. Clarke County managed to sink just 2 of 18 field goal attempts, and shot only 50 percent from the line. The Eagles, for the second straight quarter, scored less than 10 points, eight in the second quarter and seven in the third.

That allowed William Monroe to slowly pull away as the third quarter progressed. Outscoring Clarke County 5-3 over the first three minutes of the second half, the Dragons ended the third period with a 7-1 run that left the Eagles trailing 44-29 with just eight minutes to play.

"We missed a lot of opportunities tonight," Clarke County coach Brent Emmart said. "We missed a lot of layups. They beat us up pretty good on the glass, too.

"They had some players with real long arms and it was difficult to rebound against them. We had a lot of one-shot and out trips down the court because of that."

The only Clarke County player able to make any headway against the Dragons' defense was Benton, who scored 11 second-half points and finished the night with a team-high 15 points.

To Clarke County's credit, the Eagles worked hard in the final quarter to get back into the game and outscored the Dragons 19-16 over the final eight minutes.

One area that William Monroe was able to dominate was at the free-throw line, where the Dragons converted 18 of their 22 attempts. The Eagles hit just 12 of their 21 attempts.

Markel Williams led William Monroe with 13 points, despite playing with a high temperature. Reserve guard James Kirby had 12 points, including two 3-pointers.